by Roseanna White | Apr 10, 2013 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
Okay, I’m too excited not to mention it, though I’m not sure if I can share the image yet–I was surprised by my cover for Circle of Spies yesterday afternoon! I wasn’t expecting this for another few months, so it was pretty cool to get it early, while I’m still writing it. I’ll share the image when I get the go-ahead, but for now, I’ll just talk a bit about why I absolutely love it. =)
First, the model is 100% perfect. Closest match to Emma Stone as a redhead that I’ve seen, LOL. The costuming is excellent–they put her in half-mourning as I requested, an elegant gray day dress with black piping. Love it! My critique partner declared the gloves she’s wearing totally awesome. =) The colors are muted, which the designer got spot-on without any input from me. All through the book I’m describing the world as gray and colorless, the vibrancy having been leached out by the war. He didn’t know that, but he sure got it right! (Which draws the eye straight to her beautiful red hair. Just like happened with my hero, LOL. PERFECT!!)
And in the background is Ford’s Theater!
|
| Ford’s Theater |
This is pretty exciting in and of itself, because the next scene I’m writing with Marietta will be at the theater. =) I listed it as a possible background image months ago, but at the time wasn’t sure how I would get her there. Then when I had the epiphany of how, when, and why she was at Ford’s Theater, I had no clue if they’d want to go that way for the cover. So this is just amazingly fun!
 |
Actress Laura Keene,
star of Our American Cousin |
She won’t be there the night Lincoln is assassinated–she’s in some hot water of her own then–but she goes a month before, when the same play is being performed. Which, for those of you like me who don’t have all this history memorized randomly, was Our American Cousin. It was a comedy about a British dowager who thought a visiting bumpkin was an American millionaire. The star of the performance was Laura Keene. On that fateful night in April, Booth chose the laughter following one of her most famous lines in the play to cover the sound of his gunshot.
So yep, this cover came at a perfect time for me and will be up on my screen providing inspiration as I write the scene–hopefully today, but maybe tomorrow, as I have two scenes to get through before she gets there. =) This will be Marietta’s first social appearance since emerging from second-mourning, and it’s a big one for her, because she makes it without a certain someone by her side…and I daresay he’ll be none too pleased about that when he gets back from his conspiratorial trip to Cumberland. 😉
Ah, I love this stuff. Happy Wednesday, everyone!
by Roseanna White | Apr 8, 2013 | Word of the Week
Another one I looked up in the course of writing. =) I knew that charades was a pretty old game, but I was interested in the metaphorical sense. And learned some fun things.
Charade entered the English language round about 1776, obviously from French. The interesting bit is that it’s from a word that means chatter, talk. Interesting because of where our version of the game has ended up–silent. LOL. The original version of the game relied on enigmatic descriptions to try to get the players to guess the word.
The silent form variation was originally referred to as dumb charades. This is what led to “acting charades,” which is what our metaphorical (i.e. Could she keep up this charade forever?) sense is taken from.
I hope everyone has a lovely Monday! I’ll be enjoying the National Aquarium with my kiddos and a group of other homeschoolers. =)
Oh! And one of WhiteFire’s titles is on super-sale! Check out this biblical novella for only $.99! Trapped: The Adulterous Woman by Golden Keyes Parsons.
by Roseanna White | Apr 4, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
My parents always read to me as a kid. I started writing when I was, oh, six or seven. It took another year or two for me to love reading (myself) other stories as much as I loved creating my own, but I definitely came down with that bug something fierce. And after college, I decided I should take up writing reviews. At the time there was a lack of reviews from the Christian perspective, and I wanted to fill the gap.
It wasn’t long until I was a member of ACFW and reviewing the books of a lot of other authors from the organization. And because of that, I had faces to put to the names and titles. I knew there were people behind the books, I knew the people, sometimes (a little). And I knew too that I was a writer, and that was always in the back of the my mind. I wanted my reviews to be honest, but I also wanted them to be fair and Godly. I wanted to never, ever write a review that was not one I would be hurt to receive.
When I first had books out there in the world to be reviewed, I was pretty blessed. All my first reviews were positive. And often not just positive but glowing. Left and right I had folks saying how my biblicals changed their lives, their understanding, I heard “best book” or “favorite book” a few times. Which gave me the confidence to say that I was actually looking forward to my first negative review, because it would make me more a “real” writer.
Yeah. Silly me, LOL.
In the years since then, I’ve gotten my fair share of bad reviews. I’ve let them bog me down sometimes, and other times I’ve shaken them off. When they’re really well thought-out negative reviews, I learn and grow from them. I thought I’d gotten pretty good at dealing with the negative, focusing on the positive. But recently, I’ve come to a decision that, for me, is pretty big.
I’m done reading reviews of my books. Finished.
Ciao, bye-bye. Other writers I love and respect have arrived at this place long before me, and I never quite got it. But with the release of
Ring of Secrets, I do. All of a sudden, reviews are depressing me, even the good ones. I can’t really explain the reason, just the result. I want readers to find and read and love my book, I want to be approachable, I welcome and love notes from them. But I’m to the point where I’m leaving that up to them. If they want me to know their thoughts, they can email or find me on Facebook–and I LOVE THAT!–but leaving a review on Amazon is for the other readers. Not for me anymore. If someone sends me their review, I’ll read it, because they want to share. If my editor forwards me one, awesome. I’ll assume it’s something she wants me to read. But I’m done with seeking them out.
For me, this is a matter of putting aside pride and refocusing. After years and years of reading my reviews, this is a new decision, one I’m still thinking through. I don’t want to be hung up, anymore, on what people are saying about me. I don’t want to be writing just for praise. I’m writing to praise. I’m writing to share the stories the Lord has put on my heart. I’m writing to minister.
I’m certainly not saying authors who read their reviews are not doing this–not at all!! Just speaking for my own tendencies. As my heart and mind continue this journey of publication, it’s easy to for me to get too competitive, too glory-hungry, too focused on me. It’s easy to take offense. And I need to guard my heart against that. I need to stay focused on God, on the readers, on the stories. Not on the praise or the criticism.
Where do you come down on reviews? As readers? As writers? What do you think their purpose is, and how do they effect you personally?
by Roseanna White | Apr 3, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I am by no means an expert of historical fashion–I leave that to wonderful folks like Rachel Wilder, who my family fondly refers to as “Louisiana Rachel,” and who I have recruited to read my manuscripts and find any errors in how I refer to cravats vs. ties, waistcoats and vests and chemises and panniers and hoops and crinolines and…and..and…
I can’t tell you where the seams were in sleeves in a random year in the 19th century. I can’t tell you exactly when hoops turned to bell-shapes and what fabrics were most common when, and what colors were popular–not without looking it up, anyway. But at this point I’ve researched the fashion of enough eras, from 1770s through the 1920s, that I’m beginning to recognize things before I see a year attached to them. And that’s pretty cool. =)
One of my recent realizations of this was with a book I was reading for WhiteFire. There was no date at the beginning of the book to tell us when it was taking place, and our other editor asked. I said something like, “Based on the fashion described, it has to be 1890s.” I went and checked in the proposal she’d sent earlier, and voila! 1890! I felt so proud, LOL.
This is a pretty handy (and necessary) skill for a historical writer to have attained, and it’s a fun one to learn! It’s also the point where I can recognize a few designers, believe it or not. Every time I see a late 19th-century gown that I just adore, I know it’s from the House of Worth. Haven’t been wrong yet, LOL.
So while we’ve looked at a lot of fashion here as I’m in one era or another, today we’re going to just take a quick tour through the ages that I’ve studied. =)
|
| 1770s |
 |
| 1780s |
 |
| 1790s |
 |
| 1810s |
 |
| 1830s |
 |
| Early 1860s |
 |
| Late 1860s (House of Worth!!) |
 |
| 1890s (also Worth – drool) |
 |
| 1905 |
 |
| 1911 |
 |
| 1920s |
And you know what all these beautiful dresses make me wish? That we still wore such lovely creations on a day-to-day basis! I daresay Charles Frederick Worth would be none too impressed with the trend of yoga pants, LOL. 😉
by Roseanna White | Apr 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
First, sorry there was no post yesterday–had a sick boy-o up all night Sunday/Monday, and it didn’t occur to me until last night that I should have posted something, LOL.
But a special Tuesday evening post to share the winner of the Box of Secrets Giveaway! Yay!
Rafflecopter and Random.org chose lucky #55, posted by . . .
Pamela Hargraves!
Congrats, Pamela! I just sent you an email. =)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.